Click the logo above to be taken to the Gufram site. Gufram is now a part of Poltrona Frau group.

Franco Mello had this to say about Gufram and I Multipli, relative to an exhibition he curated at Castello di Rivoli, “The Rock Furniture: Design by Gufram in the years of rock.” held May 22 through September 1, 2002:

The “Multiples” series began with a collaboration with Piero Gilardi, with an emphasis on creative freedom over the functional demands imposed by production. The artist designed the first series of Sassi (Stones) in 1968. The Sassi resembled enlarged versions of simple stones, and thus became simultaneously playful and sculptural objects. Before long, the “Multiples” series expanded, giving free rein to an unrestrained sense of fantasy and creativity. In 1971 Giorgio Ceretti, Pietro Derossi and Riccardo Rosso, members of the architectural group Strum, designed the “Pratone” (Large Lawn), a well-chosen example of hypertrophic nature in the form of a rug that resembled an overgrown lawn. That same year saw the introduction of the Bocca (Mouth), a sofa-sculpture inspired by a painting by Dalì, seen by Sudio65.

Cactus was brought out in 1972, designed by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello. The desert plant, divested of thorns and presented in human proportions, was transformed into an unexpected clothes-stand. This exhibition presents these well-known pieces to a broader public, along with other lesser known or never before seen pieces, such as the Minnie, the Farfalla (Butterfly), the Mattoni (Bricks), the Tavolo Erba (Grass Table), the Detecma, and the PietraLuce (StoneLight), objects whose radical visionary nature has remained unchanged.

Having collaborated with Gufram in the Seventies, I have a view of this history and that moment that is both extremely vivid and chaotic. The succession of events, facts that today are of historic importance, was in reality extremely rapid and did not allow for distractions. Often an object began with extremely beautiful but rough drawings. It was like working with clay or writing a song: the piece emerged bit by bit. First came the idea. The seduction, first of all. And the market reacted in surprising fashion.

Below are pictured the key objects that are part of the I Multipli collection. The Capitello and some of the other expanded polyurethane objects by Gufram will be showcased in future posts.

Three of the above objects were shown at the exhibition “Italy: the New Domestic Landscape” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Pratone, Sassi, and Torneraj. Pratone is featured as one of the four movable cutouts that reside in the cellophane that serves as the cover for the exhibition catalog.